Archives

YAWN, Today’s Main Citation Won’t Make Headlines

By Michael McBurney

Controversy grabs attention. It makes news cycles turn. Eyeballs become focused. People stop to listen. People converse about current events. All of these actions help make cash registers ring. Today’s nutrition story won’t do any of those. Unfortunately because the scientific insight is important. What is the message?

Multivitamin use is safe. Multivitamin use is not associated with long-term risk of cardiovascular (CVD) events: myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, or cardiac revascularization or CVD death. The story confirms previous findings.

In the Physicians Health Study II (PHS II), multivitamin use by men didn’t affect total CVD events but a 39% lower HR was found for fatal MI. Long-term multivitamin supplementation significantly reduced cancer risk by 8% in PHS II. This is all good news. It affirms the safety of multivitamin-mineral supplements. But controversy seems to drive headlines about multivitamins and the health of men or women. It shouldn’t.

The more important story is boring. YAWN. As the term multivitamin-mineral supplements indicates, they are intended to supplement the diet. Nutritional supplements are not drugs. Not surprisingly, the benefits of multivitamin-mineral supplements are greatest in those not following dietary food group recommendations. Wow. Exciting? Not so much. Effective? Yes.

Many people are not following dietary recommendations. Multivitamin-mineral supplements can fill nutritional gaps, safely. These facts don’t make for exciting headlines. Unfortunately.